9-911-059

REV: JUNE 27, 2011

IAN LARKIN

Arcck Systtems (D
D)
Within three weeks
w of instittuting the new
w system, Sh
haron Estevess called, threaatening to qu
uit. “I
used to get about 10 1 deal appro oval forms to review a day
y; I now am g
getting over 1100. I simply don’t
have time to do anything
a else!” she compllained. “Whaat is going too happen wh hen the end o of the
quarteer hits? I alreeady work 100 0 hours a day
y then!”

Myynor knew how she felt; his

h numbers had
h jumped eeven more, frrom about 400 approval fo orms a
day to
o over 500. He
H had alread
dy stopped sen
nding forms tto Robbie Ch
hatterji, the CE
EO, when Ch
hatterji
complained about getting hund
dreds of appro
oval forms a d
day.

Th
he sheer volume of discou
unt approval requests had d already spurrred one change. Only a week
after changing
c the approval sysstem, Mynor instituted a rrule that dealls under a tottal size of $2000,000
did not
n have to bee approved at
a a level abov ve the relevaant District M
Manager. It seeemed like a good
way to
t focus manaagement attenntion on the big
b deals that aactually matttered.

_______
_______________
_______________
________________
___________________________________________________________________

Professo
or Ian Larkin prepa ared this case. The companies mentio oned in the case aree fictional. HBS casses are developed solely as the basis for class
discussiion. Cases are not in
ntended to serve ass endorsements, sources of primary ddata, or illustrationss of effective or ineffective managemeent.

Copyrigght © 2011 Presidennt and Fellows of Harvard

H College. To
T order copies or request permissionn to reproduce maaterials, call 1-800-5545-7685,
write Haarvard Business School Publishing, Booston, MA 02163, or
o go to www.hbsp p.harvard.edu/edu ucators. This publicaation may not be ddigitized,
photocoopied, or otherwise reproduced, posteed, or transmitted, without
w the permisssion of Harvard Bu
usiness School.

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. James P.'s Human Capital Management 11.23.2021 at IFIM Business School from Nov 2021 to May 2022.